List of tie-breaking votes cast by the vice president of the United States


The vice president of the United States is the ex officio president of the Senate, as provided in Article I, Section 3, Clause 4, of the United States Constitution, but may only vote in order to break a tie. According to the U.S. Senate, as of December 21, 2018, a tie-breaking vote had been cast 268 times by 36 vice presidents.
The following is the list of tie-breaking votes cast by vice presidents of the United States.

Historical significance

The first president of the Senate, John Adams, cast 29 tie-breaking votes. He cast his first tie-breaking vote on July 18, 1789. His votes protected the president's sole authority over the removal of appointees, influenced the location of the national capital, and prevented war with Great Britain. On at least one occasion he persuaded senators to vote against legislation that he opposed, and he frequently lectured the Senate on procedural and policy matters. Adams's political views and his active role in the Senate made him a natural target for critics of the Washington administration. Toward the end of his first term, as a result of a threatened resolution that would have silenced him except for procedural and policy matters, he began to exercise more restraint in the hope of realizing the goal shared by many of his successors: election in his own right as President of the United States.
In 2001, during the 107th Congress, the Senate was divided 50–50 between Republicans and Democrats and thus Dick Cheney's tie-breaking vote gave the Republicans the Senate majority. However, because the 107th Congress was sworn in on January 3, while the president and vice president were not sworn in until the 20th, Democrats technically held a 51–50 majority in the Senate for the 17 days while Al Gore was still the vice president. However, no substantive legislative work was done during that time.
Mike Pence cast six tie-breaking votes during his first year in office, the most for any vice president. He broke a tie with John Adams, William Wheeler, and Alben Barkley, who all cast four tie-breaking votes within their first year. This was also the most tie-breaking votes in any single year since 1872, when there were seven cast by Schuyler Colfax during the Grant administration. He tied Colfax's single-year record in 2018 when he cast seven tie-breaking votes. Pence has cast the most tie-breaking votes of any vice president since Schuyler Colfax.
In recent years, the increased threat of a filibuster has led to a rise in the use of cloture to end debate in the Senate, especially on high-profile issues where the Senate is sharply divided, thus rendering the vice president's tie-breaking vote increasingly unnecessary or unhelpful, since the invocation of cloture requires a three-fifths majority, rather than a simple one. However, the cloture requirement was reduced to a simple majority for all executive and judicial nominations in 2013, which led to the first ever use of a tie-breaking vote to confirm a Cabinet member when Pence broke a tie to confirm Betsy DeVos in 2017. In 2018, Pence broke a tie to confirm Jonathan A. Kobes for the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. This was the first ever tie-breaking vote to confirm a judicial nominee in U.S. history.
In addition, since legislation or nominations will fail to be passed or confirmed in the event of a tie, there is little reason for a "Nay" tie-breaking vote, even though it has happened; the last tie-breaking "Nay" vote was cast by George H. W. Bush in 1986.
In general, tie-breaking votes have become less common over time, both in terms of absolute frequency and in terms of the average number of such votes cast by individual vice presidents. More tie-breaking votes were cast by the first 12 vice presidents in the 61 years from 1789 to 1850 than have been cast by the 36 vice presidents in the 168 years since then.

List of vice presidents by number of tie-breaking votes

As of December 21, 2018, there have been 268 tie-breaking votes cast by 36 vice presidents while 12 others did not cast any votes. The average number of tie-breaking votes cast by a vice president may be considered to be 0, 3, or about 5.5.
Rank by
number of tie-
breaking
votes		Number of tie-
breaking
votes		President of the SenatePartyOrder in
office		Term of officePresident
131John C. CalhounDemocratic-Republican74 Mar 1825 – 28 Dec 1832J. Q. Adams / Andrew Jackson
229John AdamsFederalist121 Apr 1789 – 4 Mar 1797George Washington
319George DallasDemocratic114 Mar 1845 – 4 Mar 1849James K. Polk
418Schuyler ColfaxRepublican174 Mar 1869 – 4 Mar 1873Ulysses S. Grant
514George ClintonDemocratic-Republican44 Mar 1805 – 20 Apr 1812Thomas Jefferson / James Madison
514Richard M. JohnsonDemocratic94 Mar 1837 – 4 Mar 1841Martin Van Buren
713Mike PenceRepublican4820 Jan 2017 – presentDonald Trump
810John C. BreckinridgeDemocratic144 Mar 1857 – 4 Mar 1861James Buchanan
99Elbridge GerryDemocratic-Republican54 Mar 1813 – 23 Nov 1814James Madison
99Thomas R. MarshallDemocratic284 Mar 1913 – 4 Mar 1921Woodrow Wilson
118Alben W. BarkleyDemocratic3520 Jan 1949 – 20 Jan 1953Harry S. Truman
118Richard M. NixonRepublican3620 Jan 1953 – 20 Jan 1961Dwight D. Eisenhower
118Dick CheneyRepublican4620 Jan 2001 – 20 Jan 2009George W. Bush
147Hannibal HamlinRepublican154 Mar 1861 – 4 Mar 1865Abraham Lincoln
147George H. W. BushRepublican4320 Jan 1981 – 20 Jan 1989Ronald Reagan
166Daniel D. TompkinsDemocratic-Republican64 Mar 1817 – 4 Mar 1825James Monroe
166William A. WheelerRepublican194 Mar 1877 – 4 Mar 1881Rutherford B. Hayes
184Martin Van BurenDemocratic84 Mar 1833 – 4 Mar 1837Andrew Jackson
184Levi P. MortonRepublican224 Mar 1889 – 4 Mar 1893Benjamin Harrison
184James S. ShermanRepublican274 Mar 1909 – 30 Oct 1912William H. Taft
184Henry A. WallaceDemocratic3320 Jan 1941 – 20 Jan 1945Franklin D. Roosevelt
184Hubert H. HumphreyDemocratic3820 Jan 1965 – 20 Jan 1969Lyndon B. Johnson
184Al GoreDemocratic4520 Jan 1993 – 20 Jan 2001Bill Clinton
243Thomas JeffersonDemocratic-Republican24 Mar 1797 – 4 Mar 1801John Adams
243Aaron BurrDemocratic-Republican34 Mar 1801 – 4 Mar 1805Thomas Jefferson
243Millard FillmoreWhig124 Mar 1849 – 9 Jul 1850Zachary Taylor
243Chester A. ArthurRepublican204 Mar 1881 – 19 Sep 1881James A. Garfield
243Charles CurtisRepublican314 Mar 1929 – 4 Mar 1933Herbert Hoover
243John N. GarnerDemocratic324 Mar 1933 – 20 Jan 1941Franklin D. Roosevelt
302Adlai StevensonDemocratic234 Mar 1893 – 4 Mar 1897Grover Cleveland
302Charles G. DawesRepublican304 Mar 1925 – 4 Mar 1929Calvin Coolidge
302Spiro T. AgnewRepublican3920 Jan 1969 – 10 Oct 1973Richard M. Nixon
331Henry WilsonRepublican184 Mar 1873 – 22 Nov 1875Ulysses S. Grant
331Garret A. HobartRepublican244 Mar 1897 – 21 Nov 1899William McKinley
331Harry S. TrumanDemocratic3420 Jan 1945 – 12 Apr 1945Franklin D. Roosevelt
331Walter F. MondaleDemocratic4220 Jan 1977 – 20 Jan 1981Jimmy Carter
370John TylerWhig104 Mar 1841 – 4 Apr 1841William H. Harrison
370William R. KingDemocratic134 Mar 1853 – 18 Apr 1853Franklin Pierce
370Andrew JohnsonNational Union164 Mar 1865 – 15 Apr 1865Abraham Lincoln
370Thomas A. HendricksDemocratic214 Mar 1885 – 25 Nov 1885Grover Cleveland
370Theodore RooseveltRepublican254 Mar 1901 – 14 Sep 1901William McKinley
370Charles W. FairbanksRepublican264 Mar 1905 – 4 Mar 1909Theodore Roosevelt
370Calvin CoolidgeRepublican294 Mar 1921 – 2 Aug 1923Warren G. Harding
370Lyndon B. JohnsonDemocratic3720 Jan 1961 – 22 Nov 1963John F. Kennedy
370Gerald R. FordRepublican406 Dec 1973 – 9 Aug 1974Richard M. Nixon
370Nelson A. RockefellerRepublican4119 Dec 1974 – 20 Jan 1977Gerald Ford
370Dan QuayleRepublican4420 Jan 1989 – 20 Jan 1993George H. W. Bush
370Joe BidenDemocratic4720 Jan 2009 – 20 Jan 2017Barack Obama

List of tie-breaking votes since 1945